It’s Under The Stars, babe. Your weekly rundown of what is popping in The Bay and beyond. A column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, opinions, and other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes and thinking outside the margins.
Create your algorithm with an engaged life…
NUBYA GARCIA, ODYSSEY (CONCORD JAZZ)
Nubya Garcia like to choose one-word titles for her epic long-players. They could easily be mistaken for one of those Hobbit films or the opening descriptors for an HBO-produced fantasy dragon drama show. But don’t assume this exemplar British saxophonist is scoring science fiction; her debut Source referenced her Caribbean background while bringing soul, dub, cumbia, and sound system culture to jazz. Odyssey, Garcia’s sophomore record released last month, takes those foundational influences into cinematic, classical, and orchestral waters framed with ornate string charts, making for a challenging, epic collection of arrangements. Turns out, these album titles are tracking the creative’s growth and depth, which continues to enlarge the scope of jazz in the 21st century.
Odyssey‘s opening track “Dawn,” which features Esperanza Spalding on vocals and the band in its most relaxed form, features strings that feel very late period 4hero-ish—referencing another British group that looped jazz up with drum and bass. Garcia is offering us a new-yet-familiar color wheel, shimmering with bright emotion.
Speaking of her band, drummer Sam Jones is operating in live, erratic broken-beat mode, just crushing it in that humid London temperature, using tiny ghost notes that haunt and hit deep within the compositions, gifting wild verve and free-swinging ecstasy. Joe Armon-Jones uses those percussive outlines for full-roving piano lines that remind everybody that his playing is still a universe unto itself. He’s one of the best in his generation. And Daniel Casmir’s pensive double bass work alongside Garcia’s world-building sax stays pushing that boulder up that hill.
America, these are the players, more or less, who put the UK jazz movement on the map almost a decade ago. Younger masters are building, working here, collectively as one unifying spirit, inhabiting all the microclimates we associate with Garcia’s repertoire already.
Garcia stepping outside her comfort zone to make Odyssey, phoning up an old arranging teacher from university for a quick conducting lesson. Its energy seems boundless. Plucky string interlude “Water’s Path” provides space and pause amidst fire and brimstone, with a return to gravitas on the funky, vibey acid-jazz joint “Set It Free” featuring vocals from Ritchie. Then there’s the damn-the-torpedoes, clutch-your-pearls, barnburner of a chart “The Seer,” which serves as a reminder that when these musicians need to push the tempo, there is no lag time between shifting gears—it’s 0-60 in seconds; broken-beat jazz steeped in a damn vengeance.
Garcia pushes, leads, riffs with an echo chamber for the slo-mo effect. This is where she and this band have made their bones, earned their rep, and still live, burning, on the edge. They’re advancing jazz in a manner that Miles would respect, playing where the ears are.
Yes. The string charts? No risk-it, no biscuit.
Garcia chefs up a dynamic, career-benchmark project, assuring everyone that 2020’s Source was not a fluke. More of a heat-check indicator that as a jazz artist of now, alongside fellow saxophone peers like Lakecia Benjamin, James Brandon Lewis, and yes, Kamasi Washington, Garcia has many more ideas of what jazz is. We’re blessed to get a peek at her well of discovery.
Pick it up here or at Amoeba SF.
GHOST FUNK ORCHESTRA AT KILOWATT, WED/2
Be sure to say the title of “Walk Like a Motherf*cker” with a Jules Winnfield cadence, motherf*cker. You’ve been blue-pilled harrrrd into this psych-rock band gone rhythm-obsessed and cinematically engrossed world of Ghost Funk Orchestra. The New York-based outfit conceived by Seth Applebaum is a trippy 11-piece wall banger that has found a new portal into the William S. Burroughs “cut-up” method by scoring brassy horns to maneuver through stoner rock, lounge, jazz, and funk.
I can’t think of a better-sounding ‘fit to hear at The Kilowatt.
Grab tix here.
DAWN SILVA & THE BRIDES OF FUNKENSTEIN W/BLACKBYRD MCKNIGHT, GARY MUDBONE COOPER AT GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL, OCTOBER 12
Vocalist and musician Dawn Silva is part of a legacy and a tradition that, in this 21st century world, rarely appears in a live performance.
Silva, born and raised in Sacramento, began her career as a background singer for Sly Stone. After a chance encounter with George Clinton, she began to be produced by the Funk Maestro as part of the group Brides of Funkenstein, which also included the participation of Lynn Mabry. The influence they had on Prince is clear: just listen to his protégées Vanity 6.
Next week Silva, along with former P-Funk members Blackbyrd McKnight and Gary Mudbone Cooper, will be revisiting a historic catalog that gets mentioned by beat heads, producers, and Clinton himself, but never gets toured. This, right here, is a special performance that may never come back around again.
Grab those tickets here.
MYKAL ROSE WITH DJ SEP AT SWEETWATER MUSIC HALL FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18
Artists operating before the algorithm is a concept of which a certain demographic can no longer conceive. But Mykal Rose is a globe-trotting, world-renowned performer, vocalist, musician, and all-around entity that shall exist before and after somebody’s damn blue check. Throw on his “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “Clap the Barber” at your next dancehall or reggae night, and the real-deal bonafides evident in the movement of the crowd. Rose had hits even before he joined and became the lead vocalist for Black Uhuru, which featured Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, producers who framed a certain groove for all genres of music during the ’80s and ’90s. I’m trying to say that Rose is the type of artist for whom you buy tickets the moment you know he’s coming to town. No question. Done deal. That entire aesthetic—stage presence, voice—influenced singers like Don Carlos, Junior Reid, and Yami Bolo. Embrace this performer and behold his unmatched magic.
With DJ Sep on the front end as opener, you are going to be taken care of all nite.
Grab tickets here.
THE WONDER OF STEVIE
This is awesome.
When people who are not familiar hear about that run Stevie Wonder had in the ’70s, it gets pushed into that “folks talking ’bout stuff that might have happened” category.
But it was real, and dammit, the Obamas and Wesley Morris are here on a seven-part Audible podcast to make sure this important piece of history gets its proper shine.
From 1972 to 1976, Stevie Wonder was the musical equivalent of Jordan, LeBron, Steph Curry, Tim Duncan, and Shaq/Kobe wrapped into one spectacular music player. He released Music of My Mind and Talking Book within the same year, then Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and the coup de grâce, Songs in the Key of Life. This small corner of his catalogue garnered him more than half a dozen Grammys and sold 10 million albums, cementing Wonder’s place in American music history. But culturally speaking, you can’t even measure how deep and wide his prowess affected music. It’s staggering, ongoing, forever influential.
Listen, the podcast has all the goodies, stories, and interviews with producers President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, alongside the participation of celebrated musicians Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, King Britt, Babyface, Bob Margouleff, Jimmy Jam, Ray Parker Jr., Janelle Monáe, Mereba, Yolanda Adams, Greg Phillinganes, Rick McLaughlin, Will Butler, Deniece Williams, journalists Robert Christgau, Maureen Orth, Alex Pappademas, and Brittany Luse, art curator Thelma Golden, artist Lorna Simpson, activist Michaela Angela Davis, and legendary entertainment executive Suzanne de Passe.
Yes, that’s a collection of names, so the stories gotta be good.
For me, there is a Wonder track, “Contusion” from Songs in the Key of Life, that sticks out more than others. It’s an instrumental jam that got played in all the relatives’ houses when I was a kid growing up. “Quite possibly his most musically complex tune of all time, a straight-up fusion burner that rivals the likes of Weather Report, Return to Forever, King Crimson, Soft Machine, and other titans of the genre” according to JAZZIZ. YES. And as I got older, I found out it was categorized as fusion, a little bit of prog workout.
I’m just like, Stevie Wonder—on top of all the other stuff he’s done—turned me on to fusion without even knowing it. That’s how important to me that 72-76 five-album run by Wonder is.
This podcast frames Wonder as the quintessential American artistic figure he is, right up there with Louis Armstrong, John and Alice Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Monk, Mingus, and so forth.
There may be a subscription fee, but it’s worth it. Grab more info here.
BANDCAMP FRIDAY PICKS FOR FRI/4
Bandcamp Fridays will remain an important source of digital income for artists this year in October and December. Since March 2020, these special days, when the platform forgoes its cut to send entire price tags to artists, have resulted in $120 million in sales, surely covering a lot of rent, and funding a plethora of album recordings and tours.
We at 48hills like to showcase local, indie, and talented artists who we believe resonate with legitimacy—and we care about their bottom line. Here are some suggestions of artists you can support on this Bandcamp Friday.
JEMS!, GEMS IN THE CORNERSTONE II
JEMS! Oakland’s Elujay and Baltimore’s J.Robb have tapped into their Caribbean lineage — J.Robb is Bajan, and Elujay is Trinidadian. While making their feel-good, smell-better style of soul on Gems In The Cornerstone II, they didn’t just listen to old dancehall mixtapes on YouTube, nah. They studied and deciphered real quick; it’s all about vibe, bounce, flow, smoothness, and most importantly, ease.
Grab it here.
LUNAR NOON
On the cover of “Teardrop” from San Francisco artist Michelle Zheng, this Bay Area creative has taken something grand/familiar to a particular group and era, disentangling said tune from all previous associations by way of voice, piano, mallet hits, strings, and bass. Zheng returns the song to quiet notes and words.
Pre-order the album here.
TOMU DJ, I WANT TO BE
We interviewed the Bay Area producer TOMU DJ in late summer—it’s a super dope piece, you really should check it out. Her releases have graced this column for the past couple of years due to their unique and hitting melancholy nature. I Want To Be, her most recent release, expands her sound in new directions while maintaining its emotional core. It’s a bouillabaisse of influence that draws on elements of hip-hop, techno, ambient, and jazz, with skittering drum patterns and warm, fluttering synth tones. Listen and know that this is a Bay electronic music producer and DJ who is shining.
Pick up the release here.
ANIMAL PRINCE
Oakland duo Animal Prince, who was interviewed by my boss Marke B regarding its debut album, has an “uncanny melding of ’80s sophistic-pop flair with ’60s Bacharach emotional complexity—jazzy and breezy but also fascinatingly opaque,” according to his take.
You can purchase the new album here.
